METALS-London metals sag on dollar, Shfe weakens on holiday return

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MELBOURNE, Feb 22 (Reuters) - London metals fell on Thursday after U.S. policymakers backed the need for more rate rises, pushing up the dollar and putting pressure on metals as trading in Shanghai resumed after a week-long break.

FUNDAMENTALS

* LME: London Metal Exchange copper fell 1.2 percent to $7,033 a tonne by 0120 GMT, having ended up 0.4 percent in the previous session. Support is seen at the 30-day moving average of $6,826 a tonne.

* SHFE: Shanghai Futures Exchange copper pared early gains of 1 percent to trade last at 52,800 yuan ($8,323) a tonne, still up half a percent. Shfe nickel also held a 1 percent gain but the rest of the metals were flat or lower.

* DOLLAR: The dollar rose to a more than one-week peak on Wednesday, extending its recovery from last week, helped by higher short-term Treasury yields, and as minutes of Federal Reserve’s January meeting showed policymakers confident in the need to keep raising interest rates.

* DEMAND: Germany’s vibrant domestic demand and rising orders from abroad are boosting growth in Europe’s largest economy, the finance ministry said on Thursday, adding that Berlin expects the broad-based upswing to continue.

* COBALT: Apple Inc is talking to major cobalt producers to secure supplies of the material vital for the lithium-ion rechargeable batteries that power its mobile phones, three cobalt industry sources said.

* COPPER SUPPLY: Southern Copper Corp will invest about $2.5 billion in Peruvian copper project Michiquillay, with production of 225,000 tonnes of copper per year expected to start in 2015, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

* GLENCORE: Glencore Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg hailed the group’s results as its “strongest on record” on Wednesday, bolstered by a recovery on commodity markets and said it had the assets to meet future demand including from electric vehicles.

* OTHER METALS: LME nickel and zinc fell more than 2 percent, while aluminium and lead shed around 1 percent.

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MARKETS NEWS

* Asian shares slipped on Thursday as the risk of faster hikes in U.S interest rates lifted short-term Treasury yields to the highest in almost a decade and boosted the dollar.